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Hello!
 
Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Its good to know that things are warming up, and spring is (hopefully) just around the corner!

It has been a good week.  I have officially been here for a week now, but it feels like I have been here a lot longer.  I don’t know if it is because I am comfortable here, or if it is because I am bored, haha but either way it has been good.

I have been super lucky in that there is a beach right across the street from where I am living at the moment, and I just go run down by the water everyday.  I have decided since being down here that I am definitely a warmer climate type of girl.

Other then running everyday, my schedule has been pretty flexible.  At the moment, I am living with the lady that got me over here in the first place.  Her name is Lori Chizik, and she actually played against my mom and aunts in university, and with My university coach when she moved to Calgary to play her last year.  I also played against her daughter in my 5th year as she played at U of C.  It is kind of cool, and we have a lot of little connections so we talk a lot of basketball.  She actually just got named one of the assistant coaches for the Australian Sr. Women’s National Team this week, and she is really excited about it. She also assistant coaches with their U 17 national team, and is a commentator for the WNBL (which is Australia’s highest league that plays during their summer).  That league just finished on Sunday with the grand finale, and I got to go with her to the game and watch live as she commentated.  It was a pretty great atmosphere, and actually really cool to see the set up that goes into a live televised game.

This weekend was a long weekend in parts of Australia, and probably one of the last nice weekends of the summer, so of course we got to the beach as well.  I attached a photo of a beach that I went to with a teammate on Saturday.  It was so gorgeous, and the water was warm (not like the 58F degree water we get at home).

Saturday we also went to a pre-season tournament that our league hosted, and watched some of the teams that we will play against.  Everywhere that I have been has played a different style of basketball, and in Australia it is probably some of the most fun basketball I have seen.  It is probably also the place that I think fits my game best.  It is very fast paced, with point guards looking to push the ball in transition as the first option, but then if there is no option, it is fairly structured. It is amazing to me the speed and the skill level of all the athletes here.  Even there youth athletes play that style of basketball, and are some of the most fundamentally sound athletes I have seen at any age.  It has been really cool to see a culture that has a love and passion for basketball that you don’t see in Canada, and I have already fallen in love with that aspect of Australia.  It is awesome to be in an environment that has the similar focus as you do.

As for our team, we have only had on practice and one test game, and I think that we will have a pretty good year.  In the test game we did a few really good things, but you could tell that we hadn’t played together much as we didn’t read each other that well, and struggled a bit offensively in taking good shots.  We had just put in our offense as well so we are playing it a bit too structured, but I am confident that we will move past this stuff and have a great season. I have a feeling that our team will be using more ball screens then I have been used to using, and playing the 1 position I will be the person using them a lot more then I have in the past.  So thanks to IMPACT for drilling ball-screen reads into my head! Woohoo for ball screens!!

Hmm, I can’t really think of anything else to update at the moment.  I hope that you all have a good week! Good luck to everyone who is going into playoffs this week/weekend!

Talk to you next week!

Lauren

Hey All, Hope you have all been doing well! I know it has been a long time since I last wrote, so I am just wanted to let you know what is going on with me.  I have been working really hard to get my knee back in to playing shape over the last 8months, while also looking for a place to play.  I worked at Moxie’s in Lethbridge while I was rehabbing, which was a REALLY great experience. I had never served before and thought “serving cant be THAT hard”, and let me tell you!! There were days when I thought I would never step foot in a restaurant again because it was that trying.  I am so appreciative to have had the experience that I had at Moxie’s and to have been able to work with some AWESOME people. I learnt a ton as a server and have gained a greater appreciation for servers and really, people in general.

Around December I started to have troubles with my IT band.  I was working a lot, and training too, and I think it was just too much.  I actually ended up getting a contract offer for a Div. 1 team in the Czech Republic right after Christmas, but couldn’t take it because of the IT band set back.  I was really happy to have gotten a Div 1 offer, so it was a bit crushing to not be able to take it. But, with the help of some really great physio, acupuncture, chiropractic, training people, they have helped me get through this little set back.  And all though I think they enjoyed the fact that they got to beat me up a little bit too much, I know I wouldn’t have gotten back with out them.  They ROCK!!

So after that, I decided I could be ready to play soon, and started looking again for a place to play.  I knew that Australia had a league starting in March as I had a friend go and play down there last March so through networking I got in touch with a coach in Melbourne, and that is where I will be playing for the McKinnon Cougars in the Big V league.  Our first game is March 16th and it all happened very quickly.  I got an email saying they wanted me there ASAP, so after a little family vacation in Phoenix, getting my passport renewed days after I got back and applying for a VISA I left Sunday night and arrived in Melbourne Tuesday around 1130 (Australian time).  I practiced with the team Tuesday night, and we have a test game tonight so it should be interesting.  The team looks really good, taller then most teams I’ve been on, and also much quicker.  They are asking me to play the 1 position, which will be fun as I will get to push the ball a lot more then I have in the past.

I am very excited to be able to play again, and to have this opportunity to play in a different country again.  I know, especially in this field, that jobs are not guaranteed so I am looking forward to making the most of this experience and being able to continue to grow and learn as a person and an athlete.

Thank you all for your support through these last 8 months.  Although there were trying times, I never once doubted that I wouldn’t be able to get back playing.  Your kind words and encouragement through out my rehab process really helped me to always believe in myself.  THANK YOU ALL!!!! 
Talk to you again soon,

Lauren

Update 22!

I have been sending out these emails the whole time I have been in Germany, and I am just realizing that I should have been putting them on here too! I will start now! :) Enjoy
 
Hey Everyone!!

Happy Monday! Hope you are all doing well. It has been a pretty good week here.  We have had some really warm weather, but with the warm weather comes rain...and it has rained A LOT...everyday at least for an hour or two.  I am not used to the rain, and I have never really been a fan of the rain, but it is kind of a neat sound to fall asleep too.

Reggie and I went to our assistant coach’s house last night to watch the Super Bowl, but because we are 8 hours ahead it didn’t start until 12:30am...needless to say we only made it to halftime before we decided to go home and sleep, which is too bad because it sounds like it turned out to be a pretty great game.  I know that my granddad and Aunt Vera Lou were probably screaming at the 49’ers the whole night.  I bet that my granddad would have even left the room a few times because he would have been so frustrated. :)

Anyways, I realized after I sent the last email that I kept calling Johnette our “new player” and never said her name.  We have had some fun with her this week showing her around to our favorite places and going on little adventures.  There is an US Army base near by, that she has been working on since the summer, and they have a bunch of American restaurants so she took us to get food there one day...there is also a bowling alley and a movie theater and a shopping mall so we should have some things to do over the next few months with her which is kind of cool.  We also took Johnette to our favorite restaurant in Heidelberg called “Mandy’s”.  It is an American diner and it has all sorts of American meals, including breakfast allllllll day long.  Usually we will go with a teammate that has a car but this time we didn’t have anyone to go with so we decided to take the train...it was an adventure!! We are really experts with public transportation yet. :)

Another cool thing is that we are starting to get used to playing with Johnette, and her style of play, which is really helping our team out. We only lost by 4 this weekend to a team that we lost to by 48 I believe when we played them earlier in season.  We still had a few lapses, and that is what hurt us, but we fought the whole game, and we played together, which is something we have been struggling to do all season.  It is all starting to come together and it is exciting to see how the rest of the season will end up.  This week we play a team that we lost to by 60+, so we are hoping that we can play better defense so that we can keep it close and maybe have the chance to be in it at the end of the game and then it will be our game to win.  We play Thursday this week, so that is a bit of a tough turnaround but thankfully we only play about 10 minutes away and not like 3 hours or something.

I definitely have had my fair share of adventures since I have been over here, and when I look back on my 6 months of being in GERMANY, living away from home, and getting paid to play basketball, I amazed that it is actually real and that this is my life right now.  I don’t often think how big a deal it is that I am over here, but sometimes it will just sneak up on me that “I am in Germany right now” and it really is one of the coolest feelings.  What makes it even more special is knowing that I have put in the time and work to get me to where I am, and that I set a goal and actually achieved it.  People have told me that I should be proud of what I accomplished (especially after graduating from the U of L and my basketball career there), and I am just realizing that they are right.  I am proud of what I have accomplished, but I am also proud to say I have one of the greatest support systems around.  I know that it would have been so much harder to get to where I am now without the support of my family and friends, and I am so thankful for you all everyday.  I know that I don’t say it often, or even talk to some of you very much at all but I thought that you should know how I truly feel.

Thank you all for encouraging me, for kicking me in the butt when IF was being a brat (because that wasn’t very often.. ;) ), for giving me a hug when I was down, and for supporting my dreams.  You are all, in some way, a part of my accomplishments and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

I hope you all have a great week!

Talk to you next week!

Lauren

So I figured I should probably update everyone on my time here so far! It has been really great to tell you the truth.  Considering I have never lived away from home, or alone for that matter, I am doing great, and have really enjoyed getting in my own little routine.  I was able to get to know some teammates pretty well this weekend, and we went around to a bunch of different places, that I would have never known to go to with out there knowledge! It has been good to get to know my teammates and coaches as people and not just as coaches.  Everything is going really well and we play our first games this weekend! They should be interesting as we will have only practiced with some girls twice...but I guess that is what preseason is for! 

I will update again after the weekend, but here are some pictures from Heidelberg that my dad took when we went two weekends ago! :)

Hope you are enjoying the sun!!

what difference a year makes

As my birthday comes around, I often find myself reflecting about the time that has passed in the year and how much life has changed.  As the years have gone on I have seemed to realize how much can change in a year, and this year is no exception.

At this time last year I was about 5 and a half months post-op from ACL reconstruction. Because of that, I was barely being able to cut or do anything full speed on the basketball court.  I was unsure how the season would turn out for me and was also unsure of what the future held for my basketball career.  Fast-forward one year, and I have been fortunate enough to have earned the amazing opportunity to play basketball as my job.

I have graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Kinesiology, and also played my last season and game in a Pronghorn jersey.

last game in my pronghorn jersey

I have gone from meeting new teammates and reuniting with old teammates for my final season, and going through the ups and downs that come with being on a team.

I have made some new friendships and strengthened others that already existed, to the point that I am confident that they will be my friends for the rest of my life.

whoop-up challenge

casino night

I have started (barely) to learn a new language. "Guten Tag!"
I have been fortunate enough to travel to many places, including Germany, the Netherlands, Las Vegas, Idaho, Invermere, the wonderful city of Winnipeg (that is for you Morgan!), and San Francisco, just to name a few!

cobblestone streets in spijk

visiting grandad and val at christmas

I've had close friends get married, and other friends have had babies! (how crazy is it that I have friends that are old enough to have kids!)
I got the opportunity to coach a group of crazy under-15 girls with my mom and my sister.  It was so much fun to see these girls develop and become more open with each other as the season went on. 

I  have made friends with people all over the world, and I have realized that there are people in this crazy world that really are as crazy-passionate about basketball as I am.

In a few weeks I will be moving out of the house that I have lived in since I was 8, and moving across the world to an apartment with someone that I have spent less then 24-hours with.

With all those things that have changed there have been some things that have stayed the same, and I am so incredibly grateful they have. The main constant in my life is the support I get from my family. They have always been there for me, even if they think that I am crazy for doing three workouts a day, or going on a vacations based on whether the place has a gym or not.  They support me in every way possible, and I am confident I wouldn't be where I am today with out them.  This group of people is HUGE and it consists of my parents and my sister, but also aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, teammates, friends, colleagues, coaches and community members.  The cool thing about my family is that I have them all around the world that fit into that category of people.  Some of them I don't get to talk to or see often, but when I do I know that it will be like no time has even passed as we will pick up where we left off.  

The year has flown by, and I am sure the next one will as well with the new adventures in my future.  I look forward to see what is to come, and am excited to continue making some awesome memories with even better people!!

In the words of Natalie Nichols from some other place...Life is good. Life is simple. :)

new beginning

I have decided to start a blog to keep my family and friends up to date with what is going on with me.  I feel this will be the easiest for people to keep tabs on me while I am in Germany playing basketball! This one is quick, but I will try to keep it updated as often as I can! Have a great rest of your summer!